HMS Gloucester

Gloucester Class Light Cruiser

Sunk 22 May 1941 while in company with Fiji by bombs from German and Italian aircraft, north-west of Crete (736 lost).

Gloucester was serving as flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the East Indies at the outbreak of war in 1939. For the remainder of that year she carried out patrols in the Indian Ocean. In December she joined Force I at Simonstown, operating against German raiders, but without success until May, when she joined the 7th Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. She participated in Malta convoy operations, the Battle of Calabria, and operated in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean throughout the latter half of 1940. On 11 January 1941, while part of Operation Excess, which involved a Malta convoy, three convoys to Piraeus and three other convoys, she was hit by a bomb which failed to explode. She was at the Battle of Matapan in March, and in April bombarded the North African coast several times. She was hit again by a bomb at Malta on 30 April, but the damage was not serious. In May she was engaged in the operations at Crete, and on 22 May, while in company with Fiji, she was divebombed and hit four times, with three further near misses. The ship had to be abandoned, and sank shortly afterwards.

1939

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entering Malta in March 1939

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Malta, March 1939

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1940

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1941 at Malta

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The last of the graceful 'Town' class cruisers completed in January 1939. She and her sisters Liverpool and Manchester were completed to a slightly broader beamed design with an extra main armament director control tower and improved protection. Gloucester had the thickest horizontal armour of the class but neither this nor her original AA armament hobbled by lack of ammunition could protect her from the Stukas. The AA guns were controlled by three High Angle Control System (HACS) Mk IV directors. She received RA279 airwarning radar.

Alexandria

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The dive bombers first attacked Gloucester and hit her with two bombs at 1527. One damaged a boiler room and put out the lights, the other demolished the after high angle director. After some shuddering near misses another bomb scored a direct hit on the port side; the port 2pdt pom-pom was wrecked and another bomb penetrated the mounting's platform and exploded on the deck below. Exploding 2pdr ammunition added to the general chaos caused by these two hits. The graceful cruiser lost way as her steam pipes were severed and at 1545 she was hit by three more large bombs. The wrecked ship now lay dead in the water ablaze and listing to port. Orders to abandon ship were given and she sank shortly after 1715.

at Columbo March 1940

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taken from Gloucester during Matapan - Italian shell exploding in the foreground, if the ship in the background is a cruiser it must be Perth

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taken by the Luftwaffe - shortly before she sunk

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Julian Harris : 2018-11-11;13:14 My Uncle was serving as an engineer and was below when it sunk his name was Bernard O'Donnell-----